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US Senate approves five-year farm bill
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The US Senate gave final congressional approval on Tuesday to a long-delayed five-year farm bill that provides food for the needy and subsidies for farmers and sent it to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.
The Senate voted 68 to 32 to pass the legislation which is more than a year overdue after the Republican-led House of Representatives approved it by 251 to 166 last week.
The sweeping bill would cost the federal government about 96 billion US dollars a year, and about 80 percent of the money would go to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
Among the most significant changes to farm subsidies in the new farm bill would be the elimination of a long-standing federal program called direct payments, which are paid to farmers 5 billion dollars a year whether they grow crops or not.
The bill also strengthens crop insurance as an essential risk management tool to protect farmers from weather disasters and market volatility and make up for the loss of those payments.
The approval of the farm bill was believed as a bipartisan achievement for a divided US Congress, which made some important reforms for the future development of US agriculture.
In a statement after the vote, President Obama said, "Today, in a strong bipartisan vote, the US Senate came together to pass a comprehensive Farm Bill."
The bill isn't perfect, "but on the whole, it will make a positive difference not only for the rural economies that grow America's food, but for our nation," he said.
"This bill provides certainty to America's farmers and ranchers, and contains a variety of commonsense reforms that my Administration has consistently called for, including reforming and eliminating direct farm subsidies and providing assistance for farmers when they need it most," Obama said.
The last five-year farm bill was passed in 2008 and its provisions were extended for an additional year as part of a budget deal in January 2013.
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